Living the Creative Life

If you use Passionfruit Ads , you got an email this weekend announcing a new pricing structure. Basically in a nutshell, a service that used to charge $1 for every paid ad (and $0 for every swap), is now charging a flat fee of $9 a month. Which... if you're making money on ads is really a drop in the bucket and will actually cost you less money. But... if you're like me and really only ever do swaps... which were free under the old system... this now means ad swaps will cost me $9 a month. Which I really, really don't want to pay. All this to say that I will honor my current swaps and continue them through the end of August (which is when PF starts being a paid service). If you would like me to continue offering ads on my sidebar, you will now need to pay for them. Honestly as much ease as PF puts into swapping, I really can't justify paying for something that I'm not making any money off of. So for that reason, I will no longer be accepting any swaps, and will b...

I ran across the interesting idea of a capsule wardrobe the other day. You pick around 20-30 items (in this case, I picked 33 items) that are intended to be worn in one season. Basically you choose items that will be mix-and-matchable with each other, typically all within a specific color scheme, along with some neutrals. It doesn't count underwear or pajamas, but everything else you would need, including accessories, for work, church, home, etc, for an entire season (in this case summer). I thought it'd be interesting to see what I could come up with for a summer capsule wardrobe that I might actually wear. ;) What do you think of my choices? Summer 2013 Capsule Wardrobe by desertrose0601 featuring a wide waist belt

We're moving in less than a month to Southern California, so I thought it'd be fun to do a little pro/con list. I've lived in NW Oregon my entire life, so the culture difference is probably going to take some getting used to! Oregon : Love the rain and all the green it makes. SoCal : Won't have to worry about things molding all the time. Oregon : Love the seasons and the definite shift to colder weather for half the year. SoCal : I think I can get used to flip flops and shorts year round (or at least mostly year round). Oregon : Beautiful scenery which inspires beautiful photography. SoCal : Ditto. I can't wait to explore all the nooks and crannies of the state with my camera. Oregon : Cheaper places to live. SoCal : Better salaries available. Oregon : Nothing much to kill you in the way of bad weather or venomous creatures. SoCal : Wildfires, earthquakes, black widow spiders... Oregon : Fairly relaxed and laid-back. SoCal : Crazy drivers, more cr...

I just finished up the redesign for The Quirky Craftster! It turned out very cute! You can see this design in action here: The Quirky Craftster .

I started working through The Artist's Way this week, part of which involves doing what is called "Morning Pages". Basically what you do is, first thing every morning, you hand-write three pages. No more, no less. It's supposed to like... unblock your creativity... or something. Although... as a card-carrying night owl, this totally terrifies me. How can I do anything first thing in the morning before my coffee, let alone write three pages long-hand? While I appreciate the novelty of such things, it's been awhile since I've actually hand-written anything. (Thank you, Internet). I thought maybe doing my Morning Pages on the computer instead of hand-writing might work better for me. I made the mistake of mentioning this idea to someone who's been doing Artist's Way off and on for decades. Apparently this is NOT the way "real" Artist's Way students are supposed to do their Morning Pages. It's like... a rule... or something. Which ...

A snippet of what I've been working on lately. 1). It's good to put on real clothes once in awhile. I love being able to work in my pajamas, but doing that too many days in a row can mess with your head. Putting on real clothes in the morning definitely helps get my mind in the working mode! 2). Naps are awesome. I love the make-your-own-schedule part of freelancing. It feels good to be able to take a nap when I need it and then work late into the night when my brain is actually more awake (I'm a night owl). 3). It really is all in who you know. It has been said that the best way to get new clients is through word-of-mouth from the old ones... and repeat clients are even better! I'm currently working on a blog re-design for one of my previous clients, which I never would've gotten if I hadn't reached out to her to let her know about my new design portfolio ! Don't be obnoxious when you're promoting yourself, but it definitely does your busi...

Sorry to be so MIA this month. I've officially finished school and begun my freelance life. So far that consists of adding to  my portfolio website , sprucing up my Etsy graphics shop , and also hunting for "real" jobs. I love the idea of freelancing, but also know that it might take awhile to get traction in that area. Hopefully I can do both for awhile! We're also a bit in limbo about moving, which is why I haven't mentioned it much. You could pray about that, if you like, that all goes well in that department. Long story short, my dad is trying to sell his distributorship so he can start his new area selling down in Northern LA area, but the upper-ups in his company seem to be dragging their feet on approving our buyer. We think we finally have all the i's dotted and the t's crossed though, so hopefully things should fall into place this week so we can make definitely plans. This whole thing has been hanging in the works for about a year now, so we...